Field of the Invention
Water cooled pipes and skid rails are used to support heavy metal workpieces in heat treating furnaces. The skid rails lie parallel to the path of the workpieces and they extend through the furnace whereby burners positioned above and below the workpieces throw an exhaust flame upwardly between the support pipes and the skids to completely envelop the workpieces with hot exhaust gases as they are moved through the furnace. To prevent the water cooled pipes and skid rails from weakening and sagging due to the high temperature of the furnace, and to prevent the requirement of excessive cooling medium for the pipes with a lowering of the efficiency, the pipes and skids alike are covered with insulating material that is held in place by various anchoring devices.
Inasmuch as applying the insulating material to the pipes and anchoring it firmly in place can be a time-consuming and expensive operation, the insulating material is frequently prepared in preformed segments that are applied by novel anchoring devices to the outer periphery of the pipes in an attempt to save assembly time.